What does North Korea look like? Not too different from anywhere else—just emptier.

In an attempt to gear up its coverage of the North Korea, the Associated Press sent its chief Asia photographer, David Guttenfelder, to Pyongyang in April. His pictures document day-to-day life in what might be the most closed-off society in the world—the oddly empty plazas; the carless highways; the rituals of dictator worship.

The "Monument to the Three Charters for National Reunification," symbolizing "the hope for eventual reunification of the two Koreas," over a highway at the edge of Pyongyang. [Image by David Guttenfelder via AP]

A European tourist photographs a North Korean woman working at the airport as a North Korean Air Koryo flight arrives from Beijing to Pyongyang. [Image by David Guttenfelder via AP]

Rows of portable stereos sit on desks inside a music library room at the Grand People's Study House in Pyongyang. [Image by David Guttenfelder via AP]

Central Pyongyang. [Image by David Guttenfelder via AP]

Women perform a dance routine with badminton rackets at an event to mark the birthday of Kim Il Sung at a park in Pyongyang. [Image by David Guttenfelder via AP]

Subway car interior, Pyongyang. [Image by David Guttenfelder via AP]

South of Pyongyang along the highway leading to the southern city of Kaesong. [Image by David Guttenfelder via AP]

A pool facility at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang. [Image by David Guttenfelder via AP]

Families have their photographs taken in front of the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang. The palace, which was the official residence of Kim Il Sung until his death in 1994, is now a mausoleum where his embalmed body lies in state. [Image by David Guttenfelder via AP]

Subway station, Pyongyang. [Image by David Guttenfelder via AP]

Central Pyongyang from a hotel room. [Image by David Guttenfelder via AP]